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Park Geun-Woo leads top 125 qualifiers into the main event at Daejeon International

Korea

Six 800 series and more than twenty 300 games rolled in qualifying

Park Geun-Woo of Gyeongsangbuk-Do won the qualifying in the World Bowling Tour's Daejeon International Bowling Tournament currently underway at Daejeon World Cup Stadium Bowling Center in Daejeon, South Korea.

Geun-Woo had the most consistent three-games series of all competitors with 800, 799 and 794 to lead a field of 325 Korean bowlers with 2393 total and an average of 265.89. Professional bowler Park Kyung-Shin was second with 2384 (264.89) and was followed by Park Min-Soo of Daegu City with 2369 (263.22) including an 843 series, the highest block of the entire qualifying.

Multiple Asian Games, World and Asian champion Choi Jin-A was the best woman in the field in fourth place with 2344 including seven pins handicap each game, a 253.44 scratch average. Jin-A, who is not on the team roster for the Women's World Championships next month in Hong Kong, had sets of 790, 784 and 770.

Choi Jae-Nam, Lee Eun-Woo and Park Seong-Mook hit the cutoff number for 125th place when the trio tied for 123rd place with 2145 and an average of 238.33.

The Daejeon International Bowling Tournament, the sixth stop of the inaugural World Bowling Tour, will be held at Daejeon World Cup Stadium Bowling Center in Daejeon, Korea, from Aug. 8-26, 2011.

Daejeon, located in the center of the country, is South Korea's fifth largest metropolis with a population of over 1.5 million in 2010. The Stadium was constructed in preparation for the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

The tournament organized by the Korea Professional Bowling Association (KPBA) offers total prize money of 200 million South Korean Won (KW) or approximately 186.720 U.S. Dollar. 30 million Won will be distributed in the preliminaries and the remaining 170 million are the payout for the main event.

The winner will walk away with the 50 million KW top prize or approx. $46.680. The first runner-up receives 25 million with 12 million going to the third-place finisher, while fourth and fifth place are worth 9 and 7 million won, resp.

All qualifiers must complete at least three qualifying blocks of three games for a total of nine games. Unlimited re-entries were allowed. Only the three highest blocks counted. Women received seven pins handicap per game. The top 125 players with the highest nine-game totals qualified for main event, which will be played on a 44 feet lane pattern.

The 125 will join a group of one hundred players made up from members of KPBA, Korean National Team, DBC, Japan Professional Bowlers Association (JPBA), Japan Bowling Congress (JBC) and invited international players, who were automatically seeded into the finals.

Those 225 players will bowl three blocks of six games over three days on a 44 feet oil pattern to cut to the top 48 who will advance to semifinal round to bowl another six game block with the previous pinfall total being carried forward.

The top 12 after 24 games advance to twelve games round robin match play to determine the top six players who will make the TV stepladder finals.

The No. 4, 5 and 6 seed will square off in the opening shoot-out match. The winner takes on the No. 3 seed; the winner of that match bowls the No. 2 seed for the right to bowl the tournament leader for the title.

The top 50 men and the top 50 women will also earn points for the World Bowling Tour ranking (current standings).

Standings after Qualifying

Players with position, Country/City/Organization/Sponsor etc., highest three 3-game blocks and 9-game total. Women's scores including seven pins handicap each game. The top 125 advance to the main event. Courtesy of Asian Bowling Federation.